GRAND MARAIS, MINNESOTA

February 11, 2018

There have been a lot of owls in Northeastern Minnesota this winter but my opportunities to see them have been pretty scarce until this week. I walked out to put sunflower seeds in our bird feeder and came across this beautiful Boreal Owl. Karla and I got to watch it for some time. Boreal Owls aren’t seen very often as they usually feed at night. They are only 8 inches tall.

It was catching mice as I got to photograph it expelling a pellet. Owls can’t digest the bones so the indigestible parts of the mouse get wrapped into a tiny fur ball and the owl coughs it up approximately two hours after eating.

A saw-whet owl also came to the bird feeder. The saw-whet is the smallest owl in Northern Minnesota at only 6 inches tall. If I wouldn’t have seen it fly into the tree I would have never found it hidden among the branches. It let me get pretty close to capture some photos as it cozied up on a branch soaking up the warmth of the sun.